WITH news that people born in Dorset can expect to survive well into their 80s we look at other populations around the world renowned for their longevity

The Japanese islands that make up Okinawa have the highest longevity in the world[GETTY]

There has been a sudden flurry of interest this week in how long we are going to live. The Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb wants to tell pensioners how long they are likely to survive to help them plan their finances better – a suggestion that may make sense on a boffin’s spreadsheet but may not go down well once his grim reaper letters start dropping on to people’s doormats.

In cheerier news, at least for those who live in the right bit of Dorset, we learned that girls born in the Purbeck area can expect to live 86.6 years on average – four years more than the national average for women. But if people in parts of the West Country are blessed with the prospect of greater longevity than the rest of us that’s nothing compared with the inhabitants of some parts of the world.

From remote Japanese archipelagos to steamy Asian metropolises there are certain regions of the globe where people have an advantage from the outset. Some have a genetic edge but in the main it’s down to diet and lifestyle. So what can we learn from them?

OKINAWA

The subtropical Japanese archipelago of 161 islands was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War, with a third of the population wiped out in the crossfire when the Americans invaded in 1945. It also has the highest longevity in the world with as many as 900 centenarians in a population of just over a million.

The two facts may not be unrelated: the islanders are known for a stress-resistance that has enabled them to cope with catastrophe. With a low-fat diet based on fish and tofu their mantra is to eat less to live longer, typically eating only 1,200 calories a day.

They also stay active into old age, with no word in the local dialect for retirement. A hormone called DHEA, which normally drops with age, has been found to decline slower here than elsewhere.

One researcher who has spent years studying longevity says: “The Okinawans’ calendar might say they are 75 or 80 but their body says they are 50. The impressive part is that a good proportion of them are healthy until the very end.”

SARDINIA

This large Italian island is a holiday retreat for age-defying lothario Silvio Berlusconi and it also contains almost as many centenarians per head as Okinawa. The islanders have a typical Mediterranean diet based on olive oil, tomatoes, peppers, fish and goat’s cheese.

The local wine comes from the cannonau grape which has a particularly high level of anti-oxidants. Studies of longevity show that people live longer in places where physical activity is such a regular part of every day life that they get a gym-style workout without even noticing and in Sardinia that comes from going up and down stairs as people live in tall, narrow houses.

Researchers met one 104-year-old who started his day with a glass of wine and was out chopping wood at 9am. He also had a steady queue of people asking advice.

In Sardinia the old are venerated which may have a knock-on effect on longevity.

LOMA LINDA

Scientists estimate that lifespan is determined 20 per cent by genetics, the rest by lifestyle. How much difference lifestyle can make is particularly obvious in this town of 23,000 people some 60 miles from Los Angeles.

The town is a centre of the Seventh-Day Adventist church which frowns on smoking and drinking and which recommends a plant-centred diet based on Biblical foods.

These cleanliving people live four to seven years longer than the average 77.85 years of other Americans.

A row of men sitting in the main square in the sun-drenched island of Sardinia, Italy [GETTY]

NICOYA

In this remote peninsula of Costa Rica a man of 60 has twice the chance of living until 90 than a man in the United States. It is a famously calm region that is home to some of the country’s most isolated and beautiful beaches.

The lifestyle includes plenty of outdoor physical activity and lots of sleep. As in all areas with the greatest life expectancy there is little processed food or refined sugar in the diet, which depends heavily on fruit, beans, rice and corn.

The water supply is high in calcium and magnesium that strengthen bones and relax arteries.

IKARIA

This Greek island is named after Icarus, who famously flew too close to the sun and died young but its population has the highest proportion of nonagenarians in the world, with one in three people surviving to 90. It has been nicknamed “the island where people forgot to die”.

Its rugged landscape means that each trip out of the home is a miniworkout.

Pirate raids saw the islanders settle in the uplands rather than on the coasts so their diet is more influenced by the 150 varieties of greens that grow wild locally than by fish.

Ikarians also drink a thick black mountain tea brewed from herbs including mint, spleenwort, purple sage, rosemary and artemisia. The tea is a diuretic which flushes the body of natural waste but also lowers blood pressure (high blood pressure is a leading cause of heart attacks and strokes).

Islanders also have a massively relaxed approach to timekeeping: they don’t wear watches and if you invite someone to lunch they could come at 10am or 6pm and no one would mind.

Of the top five countries with the highest life expectancy at birth, all bar Japan (in third place) are miniature statelets: San Marino, Singapore, Macau and – in first place with an average lifespan of 89.73 years – the tiny principality of Monaco.

Centred on the Mediterranean casino port of Monte Carlo its traditional diet probably involves more champagne and caviar than olive oil and goat’s cheese, given that this country also has the highest number of millionaires and billionaires per capita in the world.

It’s a sign that extreme prosperity is as important a determinant of longevity as lifestyle or genes: rich countries can afford to spend more on healthcare.

HONG KONG

Like Singapore the former British territory (now integrated back into China) also has a very high life expectancy. In Hong Kong it’s particularly high among women, at 86.7 years.

Crowded and famously frantic the place is a far cry from those tranquil islands or regions where people live a simple peasant life untroubled by the need to know what time it is.

But the lack of dairy food in the Asian diet means that adult obesity is much lower than in Western countries and the Hong Kong tradition of dawn workouts – with daily swims or walks – has a tangible effect on health.

ICELAND

Finally, just in case you think a hot climate is a prerequisite for living to a ripe old age, spare a thought for this chilly volcanic island in the North Atlantic. Low levels of common conditions such as heart disease and depression are linked to a daily diet rich in fish oil.

But the key factor in Europe’s most sparsely populated country may also be energy.

Most of Iceland’s power is geothermal, harnessing the heat of Earth, which means there is no need for oil or gas power stations and there is a lower level of pollution than in other Western countries.